1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to automatically activated fire suppression system providing a system that releases fire suppressant foam, or aqueous film forming material (“AFFF”) over a flammable material contained within a storage tank or gas tank, when a heat sensor comprised of glass, plexi-glass or plastic, is compromised (i.e. melted, or broken) by temperatures in the container indicating that the flammable material is are at or near combustion levels.
2. Background
Storage tanks can hold many thousands, or millions, of gallons of combustible materials such as oil and gasoline. When those combustible materials ignite, the magnitude of the fire consumes the valuable material inside and is very difficult to control. Traditional fire extinguishers are often used to tame such blazes, and require significant manpower to operate. In spite of these efforts, there are instances where combustible material within the storage tank is ignited and cannot be extinguished.
These types of fires are very difficult to control, and before the present invention, have required human intervention. Multiple fire units are necessary to control such fires, which make these types of fires extremely costly in terms of both human resources and capital. The interior combustible contents of a storage tank can ignite when lightning strikes the tank and removes the roof of the storage tank. Because such storage tanks are often placed adjacent to other such storage tanks, when the contents of one tank is ignited, the other storage tanks may ignite, causing a fire that is difficult, if not impossible control. Moreover, when the contents of a storage tank with a roof ignite, it can be difficult for firefighters to reach the contents at all.
Where storage tanks contain combustibles such as oil, fire can lead to boil over explosions that are very dangerous, and lead to the destruction of the contents as well as the surrounding environment. Additionally, storage tanks containing combustible materials are often located far from sufficient water supplies to extinguish any fires.
Other materials, such as grains and the like, contained in large amounts in storage tanks also pose special problems when ignited. These dry materials can be difficult to extinguish when ignited by environmental conditions or other factors. Additionally, these are the types of blazes that do not necessarily remove the roof, making the interior inaccessible to firefighters and the like.
Prior patents and applications, such as U.S. Patent Application Publication 2007/0019605 describe systems to extinguish liquid flammables requiring a plurality of exterior compartments to discharge a dry chemical over the flame. The above-cited publication uses dry chemical to extinguish remaining flame where the contents are a high-octane fuel and the tank has a double roof, one floating and one above. The system is portable, and thus is not an automatically deployed system. It also relies on vents within the upper roof to deliver the dry chemical to the interior of the tank.
Still, other patents, such as U.S. Pat. No. 1,337,431, describe pressure-activated extinguishers that deliver a substance to an interior of a storage tank, but do not automatically deploy by the indication that part of the contents in a storage tank are at or near combustion. The '431 patent is limited to “normally confined fire-extinguishing medium” (col. 1, Ins. 11-12). The invention is used where lightning strikes an oil tank and a fire results. The apparatus requires a plug-stem mechanism to activate the extinguisher. Such systems are complicated and provide opportunity for parts to fail, thus rendering the extinguisher useless.
Moreover, other patents describe systems necessitating a plurality of extinguishers be placed within the tank to effectively extinguish a fire (see i.e, U.S. Pat. No. 5,573,068). It would be an advantage to offer a single system that could automatically deploy and extinguish a flame within a large storage tank having a roof.
Ignition of flammable material within a storage tank creates a novel problem. Prior to ignition, the flammable material contained within the storage tank creates a substantially flat surface area that is amenable to fire suppressant foam, which will create a blanket of foam, removing oxygen from the ignited flammable material and extinguishing the flame.
There is a need for a system that can extinguish a flame within a storage tank with a roof where that can be effective with only one containment cylinder and automatically deploy rapidly in the case of combustion. There is also a need for this system to be equipped to outlet a fire suppressant foam where a flame begins in one part of the storage tank, before the flame becomes larger and consumes more of the product contained within.
The present invention alleviates many of the complications associated with storing flammable materials, especially grains and low octane fuels, in storage tanks having a roof, by using a plurality of heat sensors comprised of glass, plexi-glass or plastic located within a plurality of pipe openings that each independently activate the release of a fire suppressant material, or AFFF (which covers the entire surface area of the flammable material) that deprives the fire of necessary oxygen needed to fuel the fire, thus extinguishing the blaze within seconds.